Free Your Mind by Seeing "Free the Mind"

The brain’s first job is to protect us from danger. Sometimes it gets overloaded and fear takes up residence in our bodies. Trauma afflicts and limits. How can we understand these phenomena? How can we free ourselves from the negative effects of trauma? These questions are explored in the new film, “Free the Mind” by acclaimed Danish filmmaker, Phie Ambo.

Time slows down. Fear takes hold. Trauma takes grips the brain, hijacks the mind. The brain’s first job is to protect us from danger. Sometimes it gets overloaded and fear takes up residence in our bodies. Trauma afflicts and limits. How can we understand these phenomena? How can we free ourselves from the negative effects of trauma? These questions are explored in the new film, “Free the Mind” by acclaimed Danish filmmaker, Phie Ambo.

This is a beautiful and compelling film. The take home lessons of the film could be summarized in a few lines. Veterans who take a seven-day mindfulness course see a reduction the PTSD symptoms and improvements in their sleep. A young child who learns mindfulness is able to overcome his fear of elevators. Beyond these take aways, we get an intimate look inside the lives of two veterans, Steve and Rich and the young boy named Will.

Advertisement

We get to experience the raw fear that Steve still experiences and we get to hear about the things he did in the war that he has trouble living with. We get to hear Rich speaking about the horrific events that he witnessed in Iraq. We get to see five-year-old Will, diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), falling into emotion when thinking about an elevator. We get to see a mindfulness for kids class and all the wonderful techniques used with children, like breathing buddies. We get to see the kids practicing mindfulness and developing emotional intelligence.

Advertisement

The familiarity captured in the film is remarkable, as if there were no cameras present. Phie points out that when the situations in your life are compelling, as they were for the people featured in the film, the camera disappears into the background. The emotional drama within takes center stage.

Advertisement

Phie came to mindfulness because she was experiencing a disturbance in her life and did not want to pursue a pharmacological solution. This is a common route for many people. For example, the world renown meditation teacher, S. N. Goenka learned mindfulness meditation after traditional medicine could not relieve his crippling migraines. Seven years ago, Phie developed panic attacks and tried a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR). She has been meditating ever since and is an advocate of continued practice. As she underwent this transformation, she wondered what was really going on inside of her, especially in the brain. Did she get beyond her panic attacks because she was motivated to change or did something change in her brain? She started to research the neuroscience of meditation and found Dr. Richard Davidson. Thus, Free the Mind was born.